'Outlander: Blood of My Blood' Is Officially Carrying the Franchise's Legacy Forward With Season 2 | Review

Published Sep 16, 2026, 4:00 PM EDT

Carly Lane is an Atlanta-based writer and critic who has been with Collider in some form or fashion since 2021. She considers herself a television nerd, diehard romance/sci-fi/fantasy reader, and nascent horror lover. Her fondness of books is only eclipsed by the towering TBR that her shelves can't possibly contain.

She is the author of A REGENCY GUIDE TO MODERN LIFE: 1800s ADVICE ON 21ST CENTURY LOVE, FRIENDS, FUN AND MORE, published through DK Books (an imprint of Penguin Random House) and currently available wherever books are sold.

It's an interesting time to be an Outlander fan. On the one hand, Starz's flagship adaptation of author Diana Gabaldon's bestselling historical fantasy series has finally wrapped up, bringing the epic love story between Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire Fraser (Caitríona Balfe) to a close after eight seasons and just over 100 episodes. On the other hand, Gabaldon herself, still writing the books that started it all, has already confirmed a planned conclusion with her upcoming tenth novel. With the story that became a global phenomenon winding down on more than one front, what does that mean for Outlander's future on television? The answer, which somehow feels perfectly in line with the franchise itself, is to travel even further back in time.

Over the course of its first season, Outlander: Blood of My Blood both laid the foundation for Jamie and Claire's journey and incorporated some surprising twists linked to their origins while still prioritizing the elements most viewers associate with the original show. With Season 2 airing in the wake of Outlander's series finale, the prequel spin-off now finds itself in the position of carrying the entire franchise on its shoulders — and has plenty of the right ingredients to do so. While it's difficult to make a definitive judgment about whether Outlander: Blood of My Blood's sophomore outing continues the show's winning streak (only four episodes were provided to critics for review), it does adopt more of a slow-burn approach that leans into drama and deeper character development as the greater threat of war hovers over the back half of the season.

What Is 'Outlander: Blood of My Blood' Season 2 About?

Outlander: Blood of My Blood Season 2 picks up not long after the events of Season 1, which left both of the show's central couples at a crossroads in 18th-century Scotland. Although their romance is forbidden due to the animosity between their clans —which includes competing political interests — Brian Fraser (Jamie Roy) and Ellen MacKenzie (Harriet Slater) are still trying to carve out some alone time here and there to reaffirm their love for each other. Yet, as any history buff knows, the Jacobite Rising is looming, forcing a couple that has all but officially tied the knot to prioritize their respective loyalties over their true desire: to run away with each other and leave everything else behind. Despite his persistent animosity toward his father, Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat (Tony Curran), Brian accepts his responsibility to return and fight with his clan, even lending his voice to his family's cause once the Frasers definitively take a side. Meanwhile, Malcolm Grant's (Jhon Lumsden) shocking death has led to even more tension between his clan and the MacKenzies, and Ellen is forced to take drastic measures to prevent the Grants from seizing her rightful inheritance in retaliation — but the agreement she strikes with Colum (Séamus McLean Ross) could have major implications for the future she's still dreaming of having with Brian.

Things have become equally fraught for Claire's parents, Henry (Jeremy Irvine) and Julia Beauchamp (Hermione Corfield), who have been fighting to survive in the past after traveling through the legendary standing stones at Craigh na Dun. While Henry stumbled into becoming a bladier for the Grants and an increasingly pregnant Julia wound up begrudgingly working as a servant in Lord Lovat's house, the two never abandoned hope of making their way back to one another. As Season 2 quickly reveals, a happy reunion for their family — which now includes their new son William — won't be in the cards right away, and husband and wife are once again divided by circumstances beyond their control. As Julia reluctantly returns to Castle Leathers to contend with Lovat, who still believes William is his biological son, Henry both navigates his lingering trauma from his time fighting in the trenches during World War I and the ire of the Grants for abandoning his post, but refuses to lose sight of securing a happy future with his wife and children.

'Outlander: Blood of My Blood' Season 2 Lets Its Heroines Take Center Stage

Outlander: Blood of My Blood is still very much a romance at its core, but Season 2 devotes more focus to driving the bigger story forward now that both main couples and their respective struggles are established — which means if you expected double the steamy love scenes this time around, you may be somewhat disappointed. Logical story reasons keep the show's couples from physically being in the same space — although how contrived they feel might depend on your personal tolerance as a viewer and what you've really been watching for all along — but these greater narrative obstacles allow individual characters to take center stage over Season 2's first four episodes.

While fans have certainly heard countless stories about Ellen MacKenzie's fearless nature across Outlander's original run, it's another thing entirely to see it firsthand. One early episode puts her in precisely the right position to defend Castle Leoch from unexpected invaders, and because Ellen knows that she'll be underestimated as a threat due to her gender, she uses that to her advantage, despite the risk to herself, her family, and other beloved clan allies. Back in the clutches of Lord Lovat, Julia Beauchamp is a much savvier player than when she first arrived, but she also seems to have a new confidant in Castle Leathers' housekeeper, Davina Porter (Sara Vickers), who's much more sympathetic to her plight than before. With Roy's Brian having a smaller presence in the first half of the season and Irvine's Henry all but incapacitated by extreme mental and emotional stress — which the show depicts vividly, if intensely — Ellen and Julia are the ones who become the major drivers of both drama and action, resulting in a story that avoids leaning too heavily on Outlander's most overused genre tropes.

The show's supporting cast remains fantastic — Ross and Retford have really come into their own in their respective roles, as Colum is caught between his greater duty to his clan and his love for his sister, and Dougal's arranged marriage to Maura Grant (Bobby Rainsbury) begins to take a wholly different shape. Sally Messham remains a pitch-perfect version of a younger Mrs. Fitzgibbons, and Curran is still deliciously, disturbingly sinister as Simon Fraser. One of the season's biggest surprises is Terence Rae, who's given the room to reveal surprising dimensions for Arch Bug, particularly through his unlikely dynamic with Henry, which gives the character's later actions in the flagship series a wholly new perspective. There's less pining between Murtagh (Rory Alexander) and Jocasta Cameron (Sadhbh Malin) than one would hope, especially with the addition of a potential love interest for Brian's faithful friend, but the latter half of the season is all but certain to deliver more action for the Frasers, whatever that looks like.

It remains to be seen whether Outlander: Blood of My Blood's return will be able to meet the high bar set by its first season, as the most significant takeaway from watching Season 2's first four episodes is that the show is clearly laying the foundation for bigger and bolder storytelling. This initial taste, though all too brief, delivers just enough of what fans have already been tuning in for while making the welcome choice to let the women of the story have even more of the spotlight. As a prequel, Outlander: Blood of My Blood certainly comes with a predetermined shelf life, and there's no foreseeable reason for the show to go on a run that rivals its predecessor's, but it does enough to carry Outlander's legacy forward by building out even more of the past.

Outlander: Blood of My Blood Season 2 premieres September 18 on Starz.

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  Harriet Slater

  Ellen MacKenzie

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  Jamie Roy

  Brian Fraser

Pros & Cons

• Harriet Slater's Ellen and Hermione Corfield's Julia become the biggest drivers of both the action and the drama.
• Season 2 paints a brutal yet striking portrait of Henry's lingering trauma.
• The supporting cast is still fantastic; we even get more layers for someone like Arch Bug!

• With only four episodes to review, it's hard to shake the feeling that the season is still building to its biggest story.